Charming Charleston

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Added: Sun. Sep 12, 2010 8:20pm
Posted in: Living

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 I just got back from visiting Charleston, South Carolina for three days with my daughters, and I’d go back there in a heartbeat.  And that was even before I looked up at a television monitor at the airport on the way home and noticed that today’s New York Times had a great travel article about the place.

 We were there for three days of escape together, and naturally worked some beach-going into the mix all three days at Sullivans Island and Folly Beach.   And if you're spending the day at Sullivan's Island, Poe's Tavern (with an Edgar Allen Poe theme from top to bottom) is a delicious and atmospheric place to have lunch or dinner. 

But our first great “find” came before we even checked into the lovely Andrew Pinckney Inn in the city’s historic district.  Fresh off the plane, we were ravenous and craved seafood and lucked into a restaurant named Fish on King Street.  It was a delicious surprise, French/Asian cuisine at very affordable prices in a charming setting.  The food was so good we came back for dinner on our last night to take advantage of Charleston’s “Restaurant Week” that saw local eateries staging sampler dinners.  Once again, the fish was great…but it’s the chocolate covered crème brulee that’s going to really linger in memory. 

 We managed to take in a boat tour to Fort Sumter, watching dolphins glide through the waters of Charleston Harbor, and toured both Magnolia Plantation and Calhoun Mansion, near the waterfront and the Battery.   We also made it to the Charleston Farmers Market on Marion Street, shopped for woven sweetgrass baskets, and grabbed a quick lunch and a decadent dark chocolate brownie at a coffee shop/bakery called Baked on East Bay Street.   And for a spooky novelty we signed on for a "Ghost and Provost Dungeon Tour"  one night.

 We returned to reality exhausted, of course, but with a wish list of what we’d still like to experience there the next time.  And believe me, given the chance, we’d be back in a New York minute.

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